Didn’t advocate auction of country's gold stocks: Anand Sharma

New Delhi: Commerce Minister Anand Sharma on Thursday said that he had not advocated auction or mortgaging of country's gold stocks and only suggested that RBI look at 'monetizing' the reserves to contain the widening current account deficit.

"I have not said that there should be an auction or mortgage of gold. All I had said was that RBI should look into the benefits of issuing (gold) bonds or monetizing the stock," he said in Rajya Sabha.

The response came after Satish Chandra Mishra (BSP) raised the issue of Sharma's reported statement outside Parliament. Sharma said that he had only said that RBI should consider monetizing gold. He, however, did not elaborate on what he meant by monetizing of the reserves.

Sharma had said on Tuesday that "It is for the banking secretary, bankers and the RBI to see how you can monetize gold, (from) the country with over 31,000 tons of declared gold. That is the declared part. So, even if 500 tons is monetized, then in today's value, I think it takes care of CAD."